Educational Policy - JSM781

• Title: Educational Policy
• Guaranteed by: Department of Public and Social Policy (23-KVSP)
• Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
• Actual: from 2023 to 2024
• Semester: winter
• E-Credits: 6
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:1/1, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: 15 / 15 (12)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Additional information: http://dl1.cuni.cz/enrol/index.php?id=4506
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment; priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
• Guarantor: Mgr. Jan Kohoutek, Ph.D.
• Teacher(s): Mgr. Jan Kohoutek, Ph.D.
• Class: Courses for incoming students
• Incompatibility : JSM685

Annotation

Last update: Bc. Aneta Csikósová, DiS. (10.01.2024)

This graduate course will examine how education policy is analyzed, designed and implemented. The emphasis will be given upon analysis of education policies, including relevant policy processes and outcomes. The course will cover topics of education policy actors, institutions, processes well as measuring educational outcomes in a comparative perspective. Also, specific attention will be paid to the analysis of educational policy tools and the nature of effective and fair educational policies. Overall, the focus of the course will be upon basic, secondary as well as higher (tertiary) education.

Aim of the course

Last update: Bc. Aneta Csikósová, DiS. (10.01.2024)

This course is designed to help students develop analytical skills and acquire knowledge about the educational policies, policy processes, actors, structures, measures and policy outcomes.  After completion of this course, students should be able to:

1. To get to know the basic components of educational policies, including their design, tools, processes, effects and context.

2. To formulate and persuasively argue what the core problems of present-day educational polices are.

3. To learn how educational policy outcomes can be assessed in a comparative way and apply this knowledge in analyzing results of international educational surveys.

4. To critically and creatively analyze effects of various facets of educational policies.

Literature

Last update: Bc. Aneta Csikósová, DiS. (10.01.2024)

MANDATORY READINGS:

Flandry, C. My Goodbye to Teaching: Why I Left the Profession I Was Called to. Available at: https://www.idahoednews.org/top-news/my-goodbye-to-teaching-why-i-left-the-profession-i-was-called-to/ (fulltext also on the Moodle course site)

Tierney, R., Rizvi, F. & Ercikan, K. (Eds.) 2022. International Encyclopedia of Education. 4ed. Elsevier Science. 

Trow, M. 2006. ‘Reflections on the transition from elite to mass to universal access: Forms and phases of higher education in modern societies since World War II’, in J.J. Forest and P.G. Altbach (Eds.) International Handbook of Higher Education, pp. 243-280. Dordrecht: Springer.

RECOMMENDED READINGS:

Barber, M. & Mourshed, M. 2007. How the World’s Best-Performing School. Systems Come Out on Top. London: McKinsey & Company.

De Wit, H. 2006. ‘European integration in higher education’, in J.J. Forest and P.G. Altbach (Eds.) International Handbook of Higher Education, pp. 461-482. Dordrecht: Springer.

Harvey, L. 1999. Quality in Higher Education. Paper presented at the Swedish Quality Conference, Gothenburg, November 1999.

OECD. 2019. PISA 2018 Results: Combined Executive Summaries, Volume I, II & III. Paris: OECD. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/pisa/Combined_Executive_Summaries_PISA_2018.pdf

Taylor, S., Rizvi, F., Lingard, B., & Henry, M. 1997. Educational Policy and the Politics of Change. London: Routledge. Chapters 1 and 2.

Veselý, A. 2012. A conceptual framework for comparison of educational policies. KEDI Journal of Educational Policy. 9(2), 323-347.

Whelan, F. 2009. Lessons Learned: How Good Policies Produce Better Schools. London: Fenton Whelan.

 

Requirements to the exam

Last update: Bc. Aneta Csikósová, DiS. (10.01.2024)

Class participation

Students are expected to attend the sessions and be fully prepared to participate in session discussions and all activities.

Course requirements

The course requirements include three assignments and the final test (for more detail see the course syllabus).

 Course assignments in more detail:

There are three assignments in the course plus the final, written test.

Assignment one: Presentation introducing a selected salient, important or unique feature of an educational system in a concrete country/state. The choice of the feature is up to a student according to his/her interest (e.g.  presentation of a new strategy on educational development; presentation of teacher training programmes (structure, graduation requirements …), presentation of statistics on incoming/outgoing student mobility in higher education …). Students are expected to present a selected feature in class. The presentation should be in PowerPoint (uploaded to the Moodle course page) and should be made in class. Length of presentation: max. 10 minutes. Assessment criteria: relevance, informativity, specificity, overall added value.

Maximum number of points: 10

Assignment two: In-class analysis of a selected educational policy problem. The analysis should typically include identification of actors, institutions, and instruments involved.  The analysis should also present formulation of possible solutions to the problem and give reasons for their justification. There are three problems: regional disparity in education attainment, socio-economic inequality in access to higher education, assuring quality of primary education. Only one of these problems will be selected by a course teacher for analysis by students in class. More information on the problem will be given by a course teacher at the start of the assignment. Based on the information given, students are supposed to write their own analysis in class (no home assignment). Assessment criteria: breath of analysis, depth of analysis, relevance of solutions, sophistication of solutions, lucidity and persuasiveness of argumentation.

Maximum number of points: 30

Assignment three: Active participation in a class debate on the essay “My Goodbye to Teaching”. The students are expected to read the text of the essay at home (for the fulltext, see the Moodle course website). Next, students are expected to actively participate in an in-class debate on the essay. The topics to be debated include – but are not limited to – motivations to become a teacher, teacher expectations, challenges of classroom management, teachers’ work-life balance etc. Assessment criteria: activity in participation, originality of views, feasibility of ideas, relevance of suggestions.

Maximum number of points: 15

 

The course will be finalized by a written test verifying students’ knowledge of the lecture content. Maximum number of points: 45.

More specific assignment instructions will be available in the Moodle course website.

PPT presentations for assignment one have to be uploaded to the Moodle course website by a given deadline.

 

Grading

Course grades will be determined as follows, based on the number of points obtained in the assignments and in the final test:

-      Assignment one: max. 10 points

-      Assignment two: max. 30 points

-      Assignment three: max. 15 points

-      Final, written test: max. 45 points

Total points max: 100

NUMBER OF POINTS	GRADING
100-91	A
90-81	B
80-71	C
70-61	D
60-51	E
50 and less	F (Fail)

Syllabus

Last update: Bc. Aneta Csikósová, DiS. (10.01.2024)

1.      Educational Policy: Introduction, Definitions and the Conceptual Framework

-      What is policy in general and educational policy in particular;

-      Functions of education;

-      Conceptual framework of educational policy;

-      Governance of education: education system structure, actors and management.

2.      Educational Processes

-      Levels of educational policy: country, region, school, classroom and individual;

-      Characteristics of effective and less effective schools;

-      The role of teachers;

-      The role of principals.

3.      Measuring Educational Outcomes and Effects in Comparative Perspective

-      PISA, TIMSS and other surveys;

-      Methodology of comparative surveys;

-      Results and trends;

-      Other indicators of educational performance.

4.  OPTIONAL: Making an Educational Reform: Roleplay simulation

-      Division into 4 teams (minister, reform team 1, reform team 2, reform team 3, possibly also a lone-wolf role (educational lobbyist/adviser)

5.      Education Policy Tools and Their Effects

-      Taxonomy of education policy tools.

-      Evaluation and testing;

-      Different typologies of instruments;

-      Effects of different instruments.

6. Higher Education Policy

- Universities: history, basic institutional characteristics;

- Enrolments in higher education;

- Internationalization of higher education;

- Governance of higher education;

- Quality assurance of higher education;

- Supra-national policy-making processes (Bologna process, Copenhagen process).